The present invention is directed to box forming machines, and more particularly, to a control system and method for adjusting the operational parameters of machine elements in a box forming machine to electronically program the machine to produce a variety of box types, thereby eliminating most manual adjustments of machine elements.
Presently, box forming machines are used to form boxes from blanks of cardboard or other similar box material. Box forming machines currently available comprise a plurality of mechanical elements that are actuated under control of signals generated by a network of electrical relays. An example of such a box forming machine is the FCO 140 machine manufactured and sold by Otor of France. The operational parameters of the mechanical elements are controlled by the relays. The relay network, once designed and implemented, can control the machine with only one set of box parameters. If it is desired to add a new function or to use the same box forming machine to produce boxes with different parameters, that is, boxes having different shapes, dimensions, etc., it is necessary to manually re-configure the relay network and/or add new hardware. Manually re-configuring the relay network takes a significant amount of time, thereby creating xe2x80x9cdownxe2x80x9d time for the machine. What is needed is a fast and easy way to adjust the operational parameters of the machine elements in the box forming machine so that a single box forming machine can produce multiple box types without the need to re-configure a relay network. It is even more desirable to provide user programmability for a box forming machine so that an unsophisticated user can select different box types at the touch of a button or issue of a command, and can adjust various settings of a box type in the same manner.
Briefly, the present invention is directed to a control system and method for a box forming machine. The control system features a controller that is programmable to control the operation of a plurality of machine elements of the box forming machine and an operator interface coupled to the programmable controller. The operator interface comprises a display screen and one or more buttons, or is a touch screen display. The operator interface permits user input and display of information to the user that is generated by the controller. The controller is programmed store control information describing a plurality of operational parameters for the plurality of machine elements for each of a plurality of box types; receive a selection from the operator interface to select one of a plurality of box types; monitor a position of a box blank as it is moved through the box forming machine; and generate control signals to control the plurality of machine elements based on operational parameters for the selected box type so that the box forming machine forms one or more boxes of the selected box type.
The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent when reference is made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.